On the Other Side of Equestria
by fireparrot
Summary: The Mane Six travel to the Everfree forest on a hiking trip. After a wish on a shooting star, the trip takes sudden runs and turns from unexpected dangers that land the Elements of Harmony on a country unknown to Equestria. Unfortunately, this country does know about Equestria, and is only too eager to capture it. (My first story, comments greatly appreciated)
1. Preparations

_Hello everypony! Welcome to my first story. Standard disclaimer: I don't own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (at least yet :) ), so I don't own most of the characters here, though the plot is mine as far as I can tell... Any ideas mentioned in this story are okay to be used elsewhere, but the only group that can copy most of my work would be Hasbro, in which case I would be honored.  
_

_I hope y'all enjoy this story, and comments/favorites are greatly appreciated! Have a fun read!_

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**Chapter One: Preparations**

"Spike, did you pack my book on wilderness survival?" Twilight looked over her list of things she would need for her planned jungle trip with her friends.

"Ah, sure! I know how much you love books, so this time I made sure to pack it." Spike reassured her. After a second, he ran off into the storage, came back with some gems, and tried to secretly stash them in Twilight's saddlebag.

Twilight rolled her eyes at this scene. "Fine, I'll let you have your gems this time, but this time only!" Twilight smiled at Spike.

"Thank you, Twilight!" Spike jumped up and hugged Twilight.

"Ah know ya hate dirt and all, Rarity, but don't ya think you could pack a little lighter? After all, you're not moving your house." Applejack opened the door to the library of Ponyville, and Twilight Sparkle's home.

"Hi, Twilight!" Applejack greeted her, and came in with the rest of her friends.

"Hi, girls! I'm just finished packing for the trip, and I'm guessing somepony packed a little too much." Twilight came outside to see just how much Rarity has packed, and was greeted by a pile of luggage on a cart.

"Rarity, again? I thought I said we won't need twenty sets of clothing for every season and fashion out there." Twilight looked at Rarity, expecting a rebuke.

"Well, I couldn't leave without my scarves, and the sweaters might be very helpful in the cold night. Besides, they'll look just astounding in the gloomy forest."

Twilight didn't give up on this yet, but was on the verge. "Let's just repack your stuff. You can tell me what you want and I'll make a list of things to pack. But please, don't hoard everything..." She looked at Rarity hopingly.

"Oh fine, but I don't think it will help much." The Mane Six proceeded to Carousel Boutique, Rarity's shop and house.

...

Rarity looked over her saddlebag, and sighed. "Oh why did I agree to this? I'll miss you my scarves!" she yelled out into the Everfree forest, to nopony in particular.

Spike jumped at his chance, and said, "Well, you still have me, my jewel." Twilight face-hoofed at Spike's obvious attempts, but nopony seemed to notice neither Spike nor Twilight.

"Well, Ah reckon this place here is good for today's camp for the night," Applejack noted suddenly.

"But we're barely in the Jungle! Can't we keep going, like where it's at least 20% cooler?" Rainbow Dash was surprised at Applejack's lack of enthusiasm for the trip.

Applejack yawned. "Ah'm sorry y'all, but today I had lotsa apple bucking to do, and Ah'm mighty tired."

Twilight joined in into the conversation, "Well, I suppose we can settle in for the night. We have a long journey ahead of us, so we need to be well rested tomorrow morning." Everypony finally laid back on the soft grass of the forest and relaxed.

Fluttershy looked up at the night sky, and said dreamily "You know, the stars shine brighter out here. I feel as if I could touch them..." Then, realizing that she was in the presence of other ponies, Fluttershy smiled sheepishly and added, "Um, well, that's... that's what I think at least..."

Pinkie Pie suddenly responded, "Well, I can almost taste the stars. I think they would taste blue! Maybe the next cake I bake should be sprinkled with stars! Ooh, ooh, I should call it 'The Star Baked Cake'!" Everypony looked at Pinkie Pie with questioning looks, but they knew their Pinkie Pie's ways and quickly settled back, gazing at the sky.

"Ooh, a shooting star!" Rainbow Dash pointed at the shining white dot streaking the blue canvas. "I wish that this trip will be 20% cooler than any other trip I had!" Finally, after the comet disappeared behind the foliage, the six resting ponies closed their eyes and fell asleep.


	2. A Strange Morning

**Chapter Two: A Strange Morning**

Fluttershy woke up first. She looked around and saw that the rest of her friends were asleep. They looked so peaceful asleep. She was accustomed to getting up early, because it seemed the animals couldn't live without her. Just like any other morning, Fluttershy decided that breakfast should be made.

She stood up in the grassy clearing, and silently trotted into the forest. Even though ponies could potentially eat grass, almost nopony wanted to, unless it was made into some delicacy first. Fluttershy brought along some bread slices, so with a few daisies, it should be possible to make a daisy sandwich.

The sun shone through the green Everfree trees, bearing no evidence that this was the forest ponies were afraid to enter. In fact, this part of the forest was rather mesmerizing, its natural beauty astonishing to the eye. This was why the Mane Six have wanted to get on this trip, to look at what could not be found anywhere else. Gardens were good, but they were small, not to mention controlled by ponies. The Everfree forest was untamed and large, and exploring this was more interesting than walking past a field of carefully laid out flowers.

Finally finding a patch of daisies, Fluttershy picked up about eighteen and put them in her saddlebag. She wanted to make the sandwiches back at camp, where the smell would certainly start of the day beautifully for the rest of her friends. She was so busy admiring the forest and picking daisies that she didn't notice the pair of stray eyes watching at her carefully.

Fluttershy walked back to the camp, happily humming along, when a twig broke, breaking her from her peaceful mindset.

"Who's there?" Fluttershy screamed, quickly turning her head left and right. When she found nopony, she decided that maybe she misheard it, or maybe stepped on a twig herself, although she couldn't find any broken twigs nearby.

Upon reaching the camp, Fluttershy had already calmed down. She laid out six pairs of loaf and her gathered daisies, and began assembling their breakfast. Applejack was already waking up.

"Mornin', Fluttershy." Applejack yawned. "Are those daisy sandwiches there?"

"Oh, yes, with freshly picked daisies!" Fluttershy was making the fourth sandwich by now.

"Well, Ah do prefer apple pies to daisy sandwiches, but Ah didn't bring any along. Thanks, Fluttershy." Applejack picked up a daisy sandwich, and proceeded to eat it. Others were starting to wake up.

"Morning, Fluttershy, morning Applejack," Rainbow Dash said, "Oh, are those my favorite daisy sandwiches? With three daisies?" Rainbow Dash proceeded to quickly pick one up and started eating it while hovering above the ponies, who were now mostly awake.

"Oh, darling, why daisy sandwiches? Those are the food of the commoners!" Rarity spoke up.

Applejack gave Rarity a deadpan look, "Rarity, we sorta _are_ commoners. "

"Hey, not like you have anything better!" Rainbow Dash protested, "Besides, they are perfectly fine."

Twilight chimed in, "Well, actually, daisy sandwiches are very healthy, and will help us on this trek in the forest."

"Yeah, whatever..." Rainbow Dash finished her sandwich. Rarity looked at her sandwich in suspicion, then took a careful bite from it. "You look like you never ate a daisy sandwich before in your life."

"Well, I'm still not used to this kind of food, I usually order something a little fancier at the local restaurant." Rarity hated to admit she loved this sandwich, whose taste competed with her other favorite foods, so the least she could do was try to insult it.

Pinkie Pie was the final pony to wake up. "Oh we're eating already why didn't you wake me we should have desserts too I think I have some!" Pinkie Pie fished around her saddlebag and threw six cupcakes into the air, which landed perfectly next to each pony, somehow. Gulping her sandwich down in one bite, she took the cupcake in her hoof, admired it from several angles, and said, "I made these myself!" Then she ate the cupcake too.

The snooping stranger moved into the bushes to watch the six ponies, snapping a twig in the process, again. The stranger silently reprimanded himself for being so noisy.

"Did y'all hear that?" Applejack turned in the general direction of the noise. "Sounded like we're being watched by somepony." Rainbow Dash suddenly took off into the bushes, dragging the stranger behind her.

"What were you doing in here!?" Rainbow Dash screamed the question at the strange pony, who had dirt all over him.

"Oh, uh, um..." he stumbled for words, "Ah just followed that yellow pony with the pink mane. I-I didn't mean any harm... I usually don't have any guests in my hidden garden... Please don't h-hurt me!" He looked intimidated by the cyan pegasus.

"Oh, those were your daisies? I'm so sorry!" Fluttershy took some bits from her saddlebag, which she still had and didn't bother to clean out for the trip. Rainbow Dash put down the brown pony.

"That still doesn't explain why you acted so mysteriously. You could have scared the hay out of Fluttershy!" Rainbow Dash stared angrily at the pony.

"Oh, um, I'm just not very social..." the dirty pony scratched the dirt with his hoof awkwardly.

"Aw, it's okay, Mr. - wait, what's your name?"

The brown stallion cleared the dirt from his hind hooves, revealing his cutie mark of a flower in a pot. "I'm Flower Pot."

Twilight stared a little at the pony, seeming to remember that name. "Flower Pot? Strange, I think I heard that name somewhere…"

Flower Pot looked at Twilight, then recognized her to be Princess Celestia's private student. "Oh no, she came to arrest me! Please, have mercy!" Flower Pot was pleading them not to arrest him, which drew confused looks from everypony.

Applejack looked at Flower Pot suspiciously, and stated, "Arrest you? What kind of crime did ya commit?"

Suddenly Twilight raised her hoof and her face brightened. "Aha, you're the Canterlot top gardener… Or was… What happened?"

Flower Pot stopped trembling a little, and spoke, "Well, Ah suppose if you really wanted to arrest me, you would have done so. Fine, I'll share my story, but promise you will not arrest me. Give me time to pack my things to leave Equestria afterwards, too."

Applejack stepped up. "Ah don't know what ya could possibly have done so horrible, but Ah promise not to arrest you, although Ah'm not so certain about the whole 'leaving Equestria' business. Ah can't imagine anything that calls for such dire actions."

"Look, I don't know what you did, but I'm sure that if it was that horrible, you would already be caught. Besides, I know Princess Celestia, and she will surely forgive you for whatever you did."

"Well, in that case, follow me. I'll get some herbal tea ready and we will discuss things over in my house."

…

The six ponies and a pet dragon were seated around a table, while the seventh pony was brewing tea. Spike's stomach growled, because he didn't eat yet; that was mostly because he woke up late, when his friends started shaking and waking him and talking about some strange pony named "Flower Pot".

Flower Pot stood up Spike looked around the dim room. "So what are we doing here again?"

Twilight half whispered to Spike, "This stallion here is Flower Pot. You know, I told you to wake up early." Twilight playfully nudged Spike, "You missed all the fun parts."

Flower Pot came to the table and gave everyone a tea, including Spike, whose stomach growled again.

Twilight sighed. "Flower Pot, I don't mean to impose, but do you have some food for my pet dragon Spike? He hasn't eaten yet."

Flower Pot eyed the dragon, "Well, what does he like?"

Spike responded, "I like ge-" Twilight cut him off, "A daisy sandwich would be fine."

Flower Pot took some bread and daisies out of his pantry and quickly assembled a sandwich. "There ya go, pal."

Flower Pot took a seat at the table, and took a sip from his tea. "Nothing like a mornin' brew! Well, I suppose you're all teeming with questions, so I'll get on with the story."

"I was once the top gardener, as Twilight there said. I was more or less the gardener for Princess Celestia herself. My job was mainly to look out for Princess Celestia's main gardens, like the garden at the Grand Galloping Gala. I would plant and take care of magnificent flowers. They brought beauty to the world."

"But of course, behind every corner stands darkness, so I had to take care of weeds too. For some reason, the most beautiful of flowers attracted the most dangerous of weeds. Some proved to be quite carnivorous, too. I would eliminate them, only for them to come back and for the cycle to repeat."

"But at one point," Flower Pot sighed, "I decided to take a break for a week. I told the others to take care of the garden for me, and they simply agreed. However, I never told them exactly what to do and what to expect. While I was relaxing elsewhere, still in Canterlot, the gardeners started to have problems."

"The first couple of days, nothing happened, and the gardeners were quite confused why the garden needs tending at all. About half of them decided that they weren't needed, leaving the rest to watch for my little beauties. However, at about the sixth day of the week, the weeds started growing. The gardeners were confident that they could easily cut 'em down."

"That night, when they went to bed, the weeds they were sure were dead started growing again. I decided to come back a day early to the job, since I did enjoy it. That afternoon, I wasn't prepared for what met my eyes. The gardeners were fightin' the weeds that tried to eat them, and when Princess Celestia came to the gardens to see what all the fuss is, she got injured herself, receiving some cuts. That day, I snuck into the gardens and cut down the plants, both the weeds, and the flowers, to prevent the monsters from ever spawning. That night, I forever left the gardens. I couldn't face the Princess after that." Flower Pot took off his hat in remembrance of that day.

Silence followed. Everyone's gears turned to process what they heard. After some minutes, Rainbow Dash broke the silence.

"You fought pony-eating weeds!? That's so COOL! How did you do it? Hmm mm mmmm..." Twilight put a hoof in Rainbow Dash's mouth.

"What she means to say, is you can't run from your mistakes. If you keep running, they'll keep chasing you. You must face them, or they will continue haunting you."

Flower Pot saddened. "does that mean I go to jail?"

"No." The six ponies responded.

"Sugarcube, it's time to put your fears away. It doesn't really matter what you did, as long as you're sorry. Besides, I couldn't really blame you either. All ya wanted is a break, and an accident happened. It's not your fault." Applejack put a comforting hoof on Flower Pot.

Flower Pot thought for a moment, then finally said, "You're all right. Tomorrow, I'll go to Princess Celestia, and apologize. I'm so glad you visited me. I wonder how I'll ever repay you."

"Oh no, you don't have to do anything. It was a pleasure helping you."

"Well, I insist. Ah, I think I got it! I'll be back..." He trotted off into the storage room. Moments later he appeared holding some flowers.

"Here, a gift from me to you, perhaps it will help you too."

Twilight chuckled. "You sounded like Zecora."

"Who?"

"Oh, Zecora. She's a zebra, who also lives in this forest. She's... well, she's still quite a mystery to us, but I think you'll like her."

"Well, I'll have to pay her a visit sometime soon. Never seen a zebra, especially not around here." He looked at the semi-translucent flowers he was holding, "Well, these blue flowers, called Shadow's Secret, are told to reveal secrets and mysteries to their beholders, although how, is still a mystery." He chuckled at the irony. "Perhaps you'll find out how. I would be delighted to know how they work; in my long life, never managed to crack their mystery." With that, he gave them to Twilight.

"Thanks! I'm sure we'll find a way, and when we do, I'll tell Princess Celestia to personally tell you."

"It was a pleasure meeting you ponies!"

"Good day and I hope your return to Canterlot goes well!"

"Wait, by the way, what are the names of my heroes? I know you, Twilight, but I don't think I ever saw your friends."

"Well, this pegasus here is-"

"Rainbow Dash, the one and only, the best flier in Equestria!" Rainbow Dash stood proudly.

"Uh, I'm Fluttershy..."

"I'm Pinkie Pie!" Pinkie Pie bounced up and down.

"I'm Rarity."

"Ah'm Applejack." At that, she shook Flower pot's hoof.

"And I'm Spike, Twilight's number one assistant!" Spike pointed at himself.

"Well, I'll have to make sure to visit you ponies in Canterlot, it sure is nice to have you around."

"Oh no, Flower Pot, I moved to Ponyville some time ago. You'll have to visit us there."

"Well, that explains the country look on Applejack, although I would expect the white pony, uh, Rarity, to live in Canterlot."

"Told you so." Rarity looked at Applejack and raised her head up, looking dignified.

"Well, I'll be honored to visit you sometime. Where in Ponyville do you live?"

"I live in a library-treehouse, can't miss it. If you come for a visit, I'll gather my friends there. Well, until then, good bye!"

"Good bye!"

The six ponies and dragon departed Flower Pot's partially underground house. Twilight handed the Shadow's Secrets to Fluttershy, because she had more space in her saddlebag and would probably be able to take care of them better.

"Well, girls, this little trip certainly is starting out strange. These flowers do look strange. I heard only little tid-bits about them though, so I don't know what to do with them."

"Huh, Twilight confused, never thought Ah would see _that_ happen!" Applejack teased.

"Hey, even I don't know everything! Besides, somepony at some time needs to find things out, and it would be an honor to be that somepony."

The Mane Six headed towards their destination, the Two Royal Sisters River near the ruins.

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_Hello everypony! I hope you like the story so far! I hope I am not updating too slow, I'll try to update a little faster. I still need to get accustomed to writing a story, but that's why I'm here. For those who favorited my story (Dragon Roberts and ImmaRainbowDash [at the publish date]), THANK YOU SO MUCH! You all greatly help me improve, and favorites boost my confidence. Again, thank you all!_

_PS To those following me, sorry for a little weirdness, if any. I posted the chapter, then I remembered to put some edits in..._


	3. The Boat

_[A/N]_

_I'd like to announce that I'm changing the title from "The Other Side" to "On the Other Side of Equestria", which I think I'll just refer to as "OtOSoE". I wanted to make the title a little bit more specific, hopefully this doesn't annoy anypony. I know it's rather long, but hence the strange abbreviation._

_Also, I'm very sorry for delaying this chapter so much. I didn't mean to make y'all wait about three weeks, making this story seem dead. My mind was just elsewhere, and in particular, what I might want to do with this story later (in other words, my head was stuck in the future). I plan on making some sequels to this story, especially if it turns out fine. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what writing methods are the best, and I was also busy reading other MLP:FiM fanfics. I'm fairly certain that in the past two months I have read more than a million words. And of course, the real dread of actually posting something on here seemed to have caught up to me, though by now I seem to be over it. I was just, as Pinkie Pie would put it, nervicited..._

_Anyways, here's the third chapter, which almost doupled (a mix between doubled and tripled) the word count of the story. I don't like short chapters too much, so I'll try to make them medium-sized. Comments on how to improve are also appreciated._

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**Chapter Three: The Boat**

Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Spike were finally standing near the river. Although there were rivers back near Ponyville, they were rather calm. After some weeks of calm life, the team wanted some turbulence, which they were now facing, literally. The river was rather fast-flowing, and had surges here and there. It was calm enough to ride on a boat without crashing every minute, but forceful enough for an adventure. None of the Mane Six have ridden a boat in such powerful flows before.

"Okay everypony, first we need to assemble a boat. Since we couldn't carry one all the way here, we'll have to make one. Rainbow Dash and Applejack, you'll harvest the necessary wood from the trees nearby for the boat, since you two have the strength." Applejack and Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement and took off. "Fluttershy and Rarity, you two can make the boat. Fluttershy's careful touch and Rarity's precise eye should be enough to make this boat waterproof."

"Of course darling," Rarity went to the growing piles of sticks along with Fluttershy. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were harvesting dry, dead branches, since they were the sturdiest and picking them off did more good than harm.

"And you, Pinkie Pie..." Twilight thought for a while before continuing, "Well, I suppose you can test the boat before we try to swim in it. If you don't take it apart, I don't think the water will be able to."

"In the meantime, I'll supervise the construction of the boat." Twilight went over to the construction team of two ponies, and saw the base of the boat; the hull looked pretty sturdy, made with nice big sticks interlaced with carefully placed smaller ones. This wouldn't be waterproof by itself, but Twilight already had a spell in mind. It would "melt" the wood together, fusing all the sticks into one mass, albeit somewhat rough.

"Nice work, we'll have this done in no time!" Rarity was lifting the sticks to parts of the boat, where Fluttershy would carefully intertwine them with her hoofs. With all six ponies present (Spike was lazing around), the boat was finished in less than half an hour, and they were barely tired. Finally, the final twig was put into place, and everypony watched the finished masterpiece. It still didn't look water-worthy, but it certainly looked like a boat.

"Alright everypony, stand back. This spell will release a lot of energy, and I don't want anypony to get fused to the ground." At this, the others stared quizzically at Twilight, then took several steps back. Twilight looked at the boat, and focused her spell. The magic around the place started to concentrate near Twilight's horn.

Spells affects mostly only unicorns, but certain spells are noticeable to other ponies too. Every living creature has a magical aura around them, and the level of complexion influences how powerful the aura is. Unicorn's horns are able to conduct this aura out into the real world, channeling it. Then the user of the magic shapes the magic into the form needed, where concentration is sometimes crucial. This way, the magic changed the real world, the strength of the spell being determined by the channeling of the surrounding energies, and the concentration determining exactly what the spell did in the end. This spell needed a lot of both, since super-heating wood without burning it was a feat in itself.

Twilight's horn began to glow while she closed her eyes in concentration. Suddenly, the boat gained a purple magic aura around it, and the wood started to glow orange. Fortunately, instead of starting to burn, the wood just seemed to melt, joining what used to be sticks and twigs together and leaving no holes. Then Twilight changed the spell, first cooling the boat, then casting a strengthening spell on it.

Twilight breathed heavily, and dropped to the ground. "Okay... I think... I did... it..." Twilight let out a big breath. Strong magic tended to exhaust the user, but only temporarily. Spike walked up to Twilight and helped her stand up, but he didn't look too worried. He knew spells exhausted ponies, and since he lived with Twilight, whose sole goal in life (excluding friendship) was magic, he knew it better than anyone.

"Thanks Spike." Twilight appreciated her assistant. He would help her with anything, from the biggest of issues to the smallest of demands.

"No prob, just try not to burn out your horn." He pointed at Twilight's horn, which also glowed orange now. Twilight blushed a little. Spike, it seemed, cared too much, and Twilight was only thankful for it.

"Well, I bet y'all want to start this boat ride. I know I wan'to." She was prepared to just into the boat, when all of a sudden Pinkie pie cut her off.

"Hold on guys, I still need to test the boat." She jumped energetically into the boat, and started to bounce in it. "Weeee, weeee." After some more dozens of jumps, she got off the boat and declared, "I officially deem this boat fit for travel for a princess!"

"But Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are back in Canterlot, and Princess Cadence is in the Crystal Empire..." then she realized something. "Oh," she blushed, "no need to start calling me princess. I'm still all your friends, remember? I don't think I can even stand others calling me that." The others giggled.

Pinkie decided to go further. "Well, princess, after you!" she teased.

"Pinkie!" It took Twilight a second to register the joke properly, then added politely, "Please stop calling me princess. I don't feel like a princess, and I certainly don't want to get called one."

Nevertheless, Twilight got on the boat, the other following behind her. Applejack pushed the boat into the river, and quickly got on. Immediately, the river picked the boat up and rushed it downstream, making it bob up and down. The ride was less than violent, and if anything got out of hoof, Twilight was ready to fix any problems with her magic.

To Rainbow Dash, this ride reminded her of flying through a storm cloud. The wind was rushing, and the water splashed against her. All this, it was achieved _without_ wings! Heck, nopony even needed to do anything, the river just carried them along. Rainbow Dash just enjoyed this kind of thing.

Fluttershy was quivering at the beginning of the ride, bracing herself for an incoming crash that never came. After about five minutes, she began to relax, just a little. She began to look around, finally focusing on something other than her own fear. The water looked violent, and the forest around them was just a little dark and gloomy, but she supposed she had nothing to fear. No, she had her friends with her, and they wouldn't let her get harmed!

Rainbow Dash noticed Fluttershy stopped shaking, and looked at her. "Phew, thought you'd never stop quivering! Finally enjoying the ride?"

"I, um, I don't know…" Fluttershy looked around unsure. Perhaps she wasn't quite afraid anymore, but she wasn't sure if that qualified as fun.

"Oh, come on!" Dash patted Fluttershy on the back, and looked at her kindly, unlike her tone. "We didn't come here for nothing!"

"Well, all this turbulence, it's so… dangerous." She tried to look scared, but for some unknown reason, she couldn't. Maybe it was Dash's calm that got to her.

"I think you're overreacting a bit. First of all, I deal with this kind of stuff every day, and I enjoy it. Second of all, it's not going to hurt you."

"Well, at one point, you crashed in the middle of one of your stunts, and it got you into a hospital. It even made you read!"

Rainbow Dash looked a little embarrassed at that one memory. "Yeah, well, I lived through it!"

Suddenly, Fluttershy looked horrified. The single mention of life and death brought all the possible fears into her head, and she started shaking worse than before.

"Why are you-" Dash was so confused by this sudden outburst, she couldn't even finish her question. She couldn't see what she said wrong. Sometimes, Fluttershy seemed a little too oversensitive to some things.

"We – we could all _die!_" Fluttershy squeaked. Rainbow Dash cocked her head at Fluttershy. Yep, she was hopeless in understanding this little yellow mare.

"Calm down, nopony's gonna die. Now listen, I don't know what gave you this idea, but you need to get over it. What makes you so… scared?" Dash noticed just now how strange it was the other ponies weren't participating in this discussion. They were too excited at the other end of the small boat enjoying the ride, like she and Fluttershy should be doing. Why couldn't Fluttershy just do the same?

"Well, the rivers just so fast, it can turn our boat upside down, or smash us! Or even worse, turn us upside down _then_ smash us!"

"Well, we have Twilight here to help us in that case. We're not turning upside down or smashing into any rocks anytime soon, she has some awesome egghead magic to help us! And if that fails," Dash stood proudly, "I can help! You have nothing to worry about. Just sit back and feel the wind!"

Reluctantly, Fluttershy closed her eyes, and just focused on the wind. Yes, it was pretty good, but those scary thoughts kept pecking at her mind.

Dash put a hoof on Fluttershy's back, which startled her. She opened her eyes, and stared at Rainbow Dash's kind and caring eyes. Fluttershy sighed, and said, "Fine." Next, she willed all her fears to be gone, and again focused on the wind. After some time, she did manage to cast out all thoughts, but that of the wind.

It reminded her of being a pegasus. Fluttershy took that fact for granted most of the time. True, she used wings a lot, mostly as utility, especially when taking care of her flying animals, but she didn't quite appreciate it. It was like water, one _needed_ it more than _wanted_ it.

But this time, something new stirred in Fluttershy, something she rarely experiences. Now she was starting to feel like a true pegasus, and slowly the world just started to vanish from her mind. All she could feel was the wind, and yes, she _was_ enjoying it. The noises, the splashes, they were nothing but erased from her mind. It didn't matter, all that mattered was the wind. For once, Fluttershy didn't have a care in the world.

Rainbow Dash was pleased with herself. She finally managed to make Fluttershy less worrisome, and actually enjoy herself. That alone was an accomplishment in itself, and Rainbow Dash was proud of herself for it. Rarely, almost never, was Fluttershy like this.

The silence at that back of the boat caught the attention of the others, which were tuning out the previous conversation, but the sudden stop made them quite curious. After some minutes, Applejack turned back to see what the _lack_ of commotion is all about, and saw a smiling yellow pegasus with her eyes closed, and a pleased cyan pegasus.

"What in tarnation is goin' on? Dash, what'cha do ta Fluttershy? She doesn't look like herself..." Applejack eyed Rainbow Dash suspiciously. "Sugarcube, are ya okay?" Applejack waved a hoof in front of Fluttershy, who, since she had her eyes closed, could not see.

"Oh, um, yes?" Fluttershy was suddenly thrown back into the world of reality. "Why were you waving a hoof in front of my face?" Although she couldn't have seen the hoof, she felt it block some of that wind. Her expression still carried half of what she felt.

"Ah never thought I'd say this, but ya had me worried when I didn't see ya worried. Honestly, Ah expected this to shake yer hooves off ya. Ah hoped maybe ya could get some fun out of it, but seeing ya like that just scared me. Yer only like that around yer animals."

Rainbow Dash watched in amusement when Fluttershy started stammering, "Well, um, I don't really know what came over me. I... it's just... the wind... I - I don't know." Fortunately, Dash thought to interrupt this interesting conversation and help her fellow pegasus.

"I think I know what happened. She just got a taste of what's it's like to be an awesome and cool pegasus like me!" At that, she looked smugly at the others. "She rarely gets her hooves off the ground, so she just didn't know what flying is all about."

"I guess... maybe..." was all Fluttershy could say in response. She thought about it. True, she didn't fly that much, but why would she? Was this what she was missing out on? Long ago, when she first fell to the ground, she earned her cutie mark by helping the animals. She earned her special talents because of the earth. The earth was her home, but the sky was her birthplace.

"You know, I never really thought about what flying is. I mean, I knew that it helps get to places, but not much else." Fluttershy, even after months and months of getting more confident with her friends, was still shy. She didn't really want to say much right now. That reflected across her expression, and her friends understood.

Fluttershy thought about her previous fears of the boat. She was a pegasus, wasn't she? If something really did happen, she could fly away, even grab one of her friends to rescue. She wasn't a strong flier, but if need be, she would use all of her strength and fly one of her friends on her back all the way back to Ponyville. Besides, Rainbow Dash could help too. If something did happen, they were prepared.

Everyone was now facing forward. Twilight called out, "Okay, we are nearing our destination. We'll dock our boat near the end of the forest. Be prepared for rough stops." Twilight's horn started glowing, and the targeted a lone tree near the border between the Everfree Forest and the southern plains. She started tethering to it, slowly pulling the boat towards shore. Once the boat reached shore, about 5 meters away from the tree, the boat did jerk a little because of the sudden stop, but not much. Twilight was quite an expert at magic, and she was a careful and practiced user. It wasn't the kind of stop one would expect after hearing that there would be a "rough landing".

Everypony jumped off the boat unto the grass. Here, they planned to set up a small camp. It wasn't going to be Rarity style, luxurious, comfortable and spacious, but the tents they brought sufficed. Of course, it earned some remarks from Rarity, but after telling her that she would carry all her luggage, she agreed.

The ponies and the dragon settled near the tree, but still out under the sunlight. They needed to dry off a little, and the sun was just the trick. The campfire was until later, when the sun went down and they would be setting up the tents. There were several hours until twilight, so the six ponies decided to share news, discuss interesting topics and solve any problems back at home.

The group settled around in a circle, and prepared for a discussion. It would start with whoever spoke first, then it would go from there. But before anypony could start, Rainbow Dash spoke up, "Can I take Fluttershy out for a walk?"

She was responded with phrases similar to "Um, sure" and "Why not?" Dash motioned for Fluttershy to come with her. The yellow pegasus was confused, but she complied. The remaining group behind them started talking.

"Oh, my mane is just a little ruined from the water." Of course Rarity was the first to speak, and of course it was about how she looked.

"Don't worry Rarity, I think that I can use a small portion of the spell I used to 'melt' the boat on your hair to dry it, while you shape it with your telekinetic fields. It might be hard, but I think we can do it."

"Oh, darling, are you sure it won't actually melt my mane?" The conversation drowned out while the two pegasi walked into the forest.

Rainbow Dash started first, "So, how did you feel when the wind blew through your mane?" she asked enthusiastically. Fluttershy became even more confused. Why did Dash drag her out here? She supposed it was to save her from extra questions from her friends, but they were her friends. True, she was still a little uncomfortable with them at times, and she was uncomfortable with that discomfort, since they were her friends and she shouldn't feel uncomfortable, but she wouldn't mind too much.

The yellow pegasus didn't know how to respond to Dash. How would she phrase it? It felt good, but was the word "good" good enough? She looked at the cyan pegasus, and noticed the expectant expression she wore. Automatically, words came out of her mouth.

"It was... nice." was what came out of her mouth.

"So, that all?" Dash asked. She knew that when Fluttershy said something like that, it usually meant she was hiding something. "Look Fluttershy, you can tell me. It's just me and you, two pegasi, and if you want to, what gets said here stays here."

"Well, okay." Fluttershy carefully organized her thoughts, then began explaining.

"I was really scared on the boat because the stream was too quick the forest looked dark and scary. I felt somewhat reassured by all my friends, but it was still scary. You told me to just focus on the wind, and I tried. At first I failed, but then I tried again and I succeeded. The wind pushed all other thoughts away, and I just enjoyed it. It was really reeeeally good, but, um, I don't exactly know what that was," she concluded with her normal, somewhat timid voice. Fluttershy was pawing at the ground.

Rainbow Dash started hovering, and with a somewhat proud grin, announced, "Well, Fluttershy, you are now officially a pegasus!" The target pegasus looked up at her, again perplexed.

The cyan pegasus continued, "What you felt is standard to pegasi who just learned how to fly. In your case, this is the first time you actually paid attention. I do this all the time, fly around and do crazy amazing stunts!"

"You feel like that every single time?" Fluttershy was amazed. So this is her other half, the half she was missing. It wasn't exactly a hole in her heart, but joy was always welcome. Fluttershy mostly associated flying with danger shame, both for various reasons.

"Yep." Dash floated on her back now. After some long silent moments, she looked over to her friend. She looked like she wanted to say something, maybe ask something, but couldn't bring herself to do so. Rainbow Dash was lucky to know her friends that well, she knew what they were thinking by looking at them most of the time.

In the meantime, Fluttershy thought about what to do with this new discovery. She could enjoy flight, but she didn't know how. She could ask Dash, but how? And then there was the problem with time. If Dash was to give something like lessons to her, when would that be? She supposed that problem was easy enough to figure out. Still, she didn't know how to ask Rainbow Dash.

"Just say it," Dash said bluntly. Fluttershy just needed a small push sometimes, and this accomplished it.

"Well, could you, um, perhaps, just maybe... um, give me lessons?" She couldn't help but sound hopeful.

Rainbow Dash was half expecting something like this, but she was still shocked to actually hear it. After some long seconds, she exclaimed, "YES!" and hugged Fluttershy. Dash was so excited by the prospect of teaching Fluttershy how to fly quickly and better.

Her previous attempts consisted of her pushing Fluttershy to fly, and they were mostly failures. The most prominent memory was when Fluttershy helped the pegasi create a hurricane to suck up water from a reservoir into Cloudsdale. Fluttershy flew quickly at the end, but only then, and Dash doubted Fluttershy received much fun from that, although it did seem Fluttershy got over her previous fear.

Rainbow Dash started flying back to camp, and this time, so was Fluttershy. Usually, that meant she was happy or excited, and this was no different. Together they flew back, and they heard what appeared to be the end of a discussion on how to bake cupcakes.

"Hi girls! We're back!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

"Welcome back. We've had one interesting discussion. What were you two doing?" Twilight was curious as to why Dash would drag Fluttershy into the forest, away from everypony else.

Rainbow Dash looked over to Fluttershy, as if asking for permission, but without saying a word, and Fluttershy nodded back.

"Well, looks like I'll be taking this lucky yellow pegasus out on flying lessons! It'll be _so_ fun!" Rainbow Dash was over-excited by this change in her life, and it reflected across her tone. Fluttershy just hovered nearby, in a good mood.

Everypony, including Spike, just sat there, not believing what they heard. Fluttershy was supposed to be scared of something like that, and now, she was going to take flying lessons from Rainbow Dash. They all went back to that day, the day of the hurricane Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash tried coaching Fluttershy, and was met with mostly failure (though the end result was a partial success).

Applejack was the first to recover. "RD, whatcha do ta Fluttershy? I noticed she was actin' weird on the boat, but this is just... not her!"

Rainbow Dash giggled in response, "Don't worry, she's not a changling or anything." Fluttershy was in too good of a mood for it to be ruined, so she just giggled along, but softly.

"Don't worry, I wasn't replaced, I'm still the old Fluttershy," she explained.

...

Everypony settled around the newly built campfire. The night was setting in, and the moon was already on her way. It was this moment, twilight, that displayed the harmony of the world. The sun was setting majestically, splaying out various colors, and the peaceful moon was rising, telling the world to rest. After Princess Luna was restored, twilight became what it was meant to be. Twilight Sparkle was enjoying twilight the most, since it was she who restored Princess Luna, along with her friends.

Looking at the moon on the horizon, Twilight said, "I still remember that day when we restored Princess Luna vividly. And I'm still happy that we brought peace and harmony to Equestria, and especially to Celestia." Since Twilight grew up with Princess Celestia, she often dropped the "Princess" part. "That was the day, and night, when we all became the best of friends."

Everypony remembered their own version of the day. It seemed that fate has tied them to each other that day. This was interrupted by the sudden, and somewhat loud, snoring from Spike, who fell asleep. He didn't do much that day, but he was still tired, especially after waking a little earlier than he was used to.

"Hm, Spike, you're such a sleepy head," Twilight said sweetly to nopony in particular. "Well, I guess it's time for us to set up the tents and go to sleep too. We've got a long day tomorrow. Dash wants to pull us up by rope, so I'll have to cast a spell to keep the boat light. I know Rainbow Dash is strong, but I doubt she'll be able to drag the boat and all of us against the current."

"Oh, is it okay if I help?" Fluttershy asked. If she wanted flying lessons from Rainbow Dash, then helping with "fly-swimming" the boat was a good start. Admittedly, she was still a weak flier, but that was just the point. She needed practice.

Twilight giggled in response. "Sure," she said after pretending to think about it for five seconds.

Applejack unpacked the tent supplies and started setting one up, but before she could get much done, Twilight telekinetically lifted all of the supplies up, and made three tents, each for two ponies, in six seconds.

"Uh, I guess mah hooves will never beat yer fancy magic," Applejack sighed. Rainbow Dash was in the same tent as Fluttershy, Rarity went along with Applejack, and Twilight was left with Pinkie Pie.

Twilight lifted Spike up and moved him into her tent. She noticed that Pinkie Pie was already asleep. She almost always fell asleep very quickly. Twilight surmised it was because of all the sugar she regularly ate. Twilight hasn't done any tests on it, but after the Pinkie Sense test, she was afraid to do so. With Pinkie Pie, there was no telling what would happen.

She supposed the world was somewhat similar, one could never tell exactly what will happen (unless you're Pinkie Pie, in that case there's the Pinkie Sense), and unexpected things sometimes pop out of nowhere. It was fortunate that it happened rarely, especially since Twilight liked being organized, and unexpected things were not one of the things she liked.

* * *

_[A/N]_

_I like foreshadowing events, putting puns in, and in general including irony. I don't want to spoil exactly what I have in store, but I certainly can include hints in the story._

_Also, I just want to share this one piece of information: I'm unsure about how to go along with characterization. I mean, the Mane Six, along with everypony else, are already characters, so I need to preserve their traits as they are. Of course, since stories have plots, that means the characters might develop, and change slightly. In other words, I'm afraid that I screwed up how the characters behave(d)._

_Again, comments about how to improve my story are appreciated._

_P.S. Special thanks go to Dragon Roberts, ImmaRainbowDash and IchigoUsagiHibiki for following my story and just being awesome. And I'm also sorry to IchigoUsagiHibiki because he/she (sorry, don't know which one it is, hope you aren't offended) started following my story and had to wait about three weeks for me to update. I hope I can write a little bit quicker than that next time. So, until later (hopefully soon), good bye!  
_


	4. Trixie's Tricks

_[A/N] Hello everypony! Sorry for taking so long to update, that was a break that took longer than I deserve. All I can say in excuse was that I'm trying to think over and improve my writing, and that, since I'm a rather recent brony, I have had "interesting" events take place. I think most of you know the "war" that happens between bronies and haters and all that shtuff (yes, shtuff), _and it's quite delicate. As for my writing, well, I need to rethink the story quite some more, and I feel like my vocabulary isn't that extensive. Normally, I'm the boss of vocabulary, but it seems that my skills elude me here.

I'm currently open to some suggestions, though the main plot line is pretty much locked. Now, I can't go off revealing what my master plan is, so I guess y'all will just have to blindly give 'em. I have been planning potential sequels to the story as well (in fact, that sucked up quite some time), and they are likely to be written once this story finishes, and I figure out how to write properly. In fact, I was also planning some completely separate stories, which I might write & post sooner or later (one's a short story, and the other is one long story).

I hope that I'll be back into writing and will be able to post at a rate that doesn't cause people to go hibernating over the waiting period. However, I'm such a Discord that I can't tell what I will do and what I won't, I can only guess...

* * *

**Chapter Four: Trixie's Tricks**

A light blue unicorn mare ran through the Everfree Forest. It was getting dark, and she didn't want to be late. The unusual run was sapping the energy out of her, it was already turning night, and she was very tired. Her targets swam a long way away on their boat, and now she had to catch up to them.

She started following the group all the way from the beginning, since they entered the Everfree Forest. Just that morning, she made the most classical mistake: she stepped on a twig. That almost alerted the yellow pegasus to her presence, but fortunately, not only was she not caught, but some other random dude popped up from nowhere, completely drawing the attention away from her. She would say it was genius, but that was just an accident on her part.

Trixie tripped on a branch while thinking what she'll do once she gets close to the group. "Ugh, The Great and Powerful Trixie does not like running, or forests, or running in forests." She picked herself up, and started running again, albeit more carefully. One fall was enough; Trixie didn't like getting hurt at all. Like some civilized ponies, she preferred wits over brute strength.

She had revenge to get to. This time, however, it would be very different. As ignorant as Trixie was, she did learn things once in a while. Her show in Ponyville involved deception, her previous revenge attempt involved being evil. This time, she would be nice. All it involved, actually, was just pranking the ponies. True, it was too simple of a revenge plan, but she supposed that was part of being nice. One does not go on an all-out war when one wants to be nice. A nice pony forgets others, a nice pony enjoys the company of others and entertains them too. She wanted to be nice for a change. All that little war did was cost her, and putting even more effort into it was only making it worse. Nice was what she wanted to be now.

Nevertheless, Trixie ran with fortitude against the forest's obstacles. She was having her _nice_ revenge, no matter what. There was one thing that she was not, and that was lazy. She was not the type to give up easily, even if this pranking trip meant going through the Everfree Forest.

The trees began to thin out, and Trixie spied traces of smoke. That meant she was close, so she pressed on and trotted next to the camp in a minute. Panting, she stopped close to the edge of the forest, and looked at the campsite. It seemed that everypony was asleep, but Trixie had to make sure. She casted a detection spell, with a personal favorite of hers, the deception spell, which would make it hard for anypony to detect that she casted a spell. Even if Trixie wasn't going to deceive other ponies in an evil manner, she wasn't about to give up a huge part of her magical studies. There were a lot of variants of the deception spell, and Trixie picked the magic cloaking spell.

Upon realizing that everypony was asleep, she sighed, and dropped to the ground in exhaustion. That run had taken a toll on her, and she was ready to fall asleep at any moment. There was no place to hide from the ponies, but Trixie wasn't worried. She did have an upper hoof in certain parts of magic against Twilight. Casting a very strong, long-term invisibility spell, Trixie's eyes drooped, closed, and finally, she fell asleep.

...

"Wake up everypony!" Twilight yelled. Beside her, Spike groggily rubbed his eyes.

"Twilight, are you sure it's day? It feels like I fell asleep just a minute ago..." Spike looked at Twilight for a second, then his eyes closed, and he started snoring, all the while still standing.

Twilight laughed softly at Spike's antics. Every morning, this was the Spike she was used to. Of course, maybe he didn't immediately fall asleep every morning, but he was certainly one who liked his sleep very much.

Twilight nudged Spike. "Come on Spike, we have some adventuring to do!" Spike was still asleep. Groaning, she was ready to nudge him a little harder, but an idea popped into her head.

"Wake up, and I'll give you a nice blue sapphire!" That got Spike, and he immediately rushed to Twilight's side.

"At your command, Twilight!" Spike saluted her. "So, about that sapphire..." Laughing again, Twilight reached into her saddlebag, and gave Spike a sapphire, like promised. Spike licked his lips, and started chewing on the gem. _Maybe I should bring gems more often on trips..._ Twilight thought.

"Now that's Spike's breakfast is taken care of, we should eat ourselves," Twilight noted. Pinkie reached into her saddlebag, and pulled out a giant cake.

"I always carry some cake in case of cake emergency!" Pinkie exclaimed, causing Twilight to facehoof.

"Pinkie, how do you even carry that thing?" Twilight asked. Pinkie almost never made sense, and questioning her usually only led to more questions.

"Don't worry, it's bigger on the inside!" Pinkie exclaimed.

"How... just, nevermind..." Twilight didn't bother to continue her quest for knowledge when Pinkie was involved. For a bag to be bigger on the inside, some unicorn must have casted a special spell on it. The problem would be, however, making all the necessary calculations. Only several artifacts were enchanted to be bigger on the inside, because it was so difficult to do, and those usually involved royalty. It was true Twilight was a princess, but that was a recent acquirement, and she didn't remember anypony making any enlarged saddlebags for her or her friends.

Putting the usual randomness from Pinkie away, Twilight dug into her cake. She realized just how hungry she truly was. Looking around, she noted that the other ponies were just about as hungry, if not hungrier. All she ate yesterday were a sandwich, a cupcake, and some other foods at Flower Pot's house.

_Speaking of Flower Pot, I need to get around to checking out this Shadow's Secret plant._ Now that Twilight thought about something new to discover, hunger left her immediately, and Twilight set herself upon another quest for knowledge. Leaving the cake slice unfinished, she reached into Fluttershy's saddlebag and started examining the flowers. From what little she read about them before, she knew nopony has yet discovered its secret. It was a semi-transparent, shimmering blue plant, reminding her of Luna's mane. It was majestic and beautiful, but it had to serve a more practical, useful purpose.

In the meantime, Trixie was slowly awakening. The run before drained so much of her energy, she didn't wake immediately when the others did. She was lucky she maintained the cloaking spell as much as she did, and even that contributed to the exhaustion. Fortunately, Trixie was somewhat used to not sleeping much; that came with the job of a showmare, some ponies never bothered to acknowledge they are living ponies too and need sleep as well.

Once her eyes were fully opened, Trixie looked around. The ponies were eating some sort of cake, all except Twilight, who was studying some strange blue plant. That plant looked familiar to Trixie, but for some reason, she couldn't understand why. She looked at the cake slices again, and her stomach grumbled in response. She was really hungry, perhaps the ponies will give her some cake after her prank. She hoped they would. After all, she was about to perform a friendly prank, and so she expected a friendly slice of cake back.

...

"Alright everypony, all aboard!" Twilight exclaimed. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were tied by a rope to the boat, ready to drag it out into the river and upstream. Twilight started channeling the spell to make the boat lighter, and everypony, including Spike, climbed on board.

"Ah want ta see how Fluttershy handles this. Actually, Ah wanted ta see how Rainbow Dash would drag us upstream, but Fluttershy is so much more interesting. Never thought ta see Fluttershy be our force pony," Applejack mused. "Well, Ah guess life likes ta throw surprises," she looked over at Pinkie wearing a party hat for no observable reason, "And Pinkie likes throwing surprise parties."

"Uhm, everypony ready?" Fluttershy questioned the passengers while hovering. There were some verbal agreements in answer to her question, and no dissent.

"Alright Fluttershy, ready to fly?" Rainbow Dash asked her pegasus friend.

"I- I think so..." Fluttershy trailed off, thinking over whether she truly was ready or not. She definitely did not feel ready. How would she fly? What if she failed? She supposed she did fly once while tugging some other ponies with a rope, but that was during Discord's discord with the ponies. If she failed, well, then probably Rainbow Dash could do it all alone. After all, that was the original plan, and Fluttershy was just helping. Maybe things weren't so bad, maybe all's going to be fine.

"Ok, three, two, one, GO!" Rainbow Dash immediately started pulling the boat towards the river. One or two seconds later, Fluttershy noticed what was going on and started pulling the boat as well. The boat got dragged across the grassy ground and shook a little, then settled in and balanced out once in the water. Even though the waters were still turbulent, with the pegasi pulling on the boat, the ride was quite stable.

Trixie monitored the team dragging the boat out into the river. _Well, now or never…_ Trixie already saw them starting to slowly accelerate upstream, and she did not want to run after them again. Immediately, she started casting a spell, which would make the boat heavier. _That should give them a dip into the water, then they would bob out of it and be soaking wet! Brilliant!_

Twilight noticed something strange about her spell: it was starting to weaken. "Hold on everypony, my spell's weakening. I'll try to recast and reinforce it." That's when she felt even more magical corruption, because her spell started gathering the essence of a stranger, and actually started making the boat heavier. "Huh? Um, I think we have a problem!" Twilight announced to the others.

"Twilight, what's going on? The boat is harder to drag, and Fluttershy is already having a problem pulling it." Rainbow Dash looked behind her to notice Twilight with a face of confusion. She knew that whenever that happened, they were in trouble.

Trixie looked over the ponies. They were confused, and Trixie was happy to see her revenge succeed. That was a first. She even decided to throw in a good wave into the plan, just for fun.

Twilight saw water congregating in front of the boat into a wave. "Hold on everypony! There's something very wrong here!" Twilight shouted over the fuss. Everybody on board grabbed whatever part of the boat they could, and Spike hid behind the ponies. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were still pulling though.

The moment the wave hit the boat, it lost all control and went along the stream. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were swept in as well, and the tug of the rope was very hard. Fluttershy screamed slightly in pain, and Rainbow Dash didn't look too well either. Everypony on the boat struggled to breath in the splash and hold on.

Trixie oversaw the execution of her plan, and once she saw the boat losing control and hurting the ponies, she gave a second thought to the current events. _This isn't quite what I imagined..._ With a sudden change of heart, she ran after the ponies to help them in some way. She didn't even know what overcame her, perhaps it was the kindness of those ponies rubbing off on her.

Twilight struggled to analyze her situation. _Okay, so we're on an out-of-controlled boat that I was supposed to have a magic hold on._ She looked over at her pegasi friends, who were landing on the boat and collapsing from exhaustion and the sudden pain from the tug of the rope. _Oh, and the force that's supposed to keep us afloat and in direction is also down. Great!_ Twilight thought over her possibilities. There wasn't a lot she could do, she was already magically drained, and her spells seemed to have backfired, somehow.

As a desperate attempt, Twilight threw out a magic tether, hoping to grab _something_ stable enough to hold on to, and hopefully save everypony from the savage river. Finally locking on something, she activated the spell, and grabbed the object. Unfortunately, that object gave out and didn't hold.

Trixie was running along the river, already being tired from running twice that week. All of a sudden, she got lifted into the air, and dragged by something similar to telekinesis. "Huh?" she questioned out loud, for the surprise was too much. Has she been discovered? Well, after the show she put up for the boat, and then running after the boat, that wasn't much of a surprise, but the spell holding her was.

She was over the river when the spell started weakening. _No no no no… I am _not_ falling into the river_. She re-strengthened the weakening tether with her own magic, to keep it together and prevent herself from falling into the raging river down below.

Twilight decided to drop the tether, it wasn't getting her anywhere. She tried powering down the spell, but for some reason it wouldn't let up.

"What the…?" Twilight had enough of this, her magic has been messed with way too much (actually, one time was too much already). She pulled on her tether to see what she pulled in. What came over the side of the boat, enveloped in her pink aura of magic, was none other than Trixie herself!

"HUH?!" Twilight was so confused she drew a hoof to her face, away from a hoof-hold, to rub her eyes, to make sure they weren't deceiving her.

"Tr- Trixie? What are _you_ doing here?" Trixie only smiled shyly in return. "Nevermind that, hold onto something, we're in a bit of a snaggle here."

Trixie could only think to make another tether to the boat, though this time she would have to maintain it herself, and hold herself in the air with telekinesis. She knew that would take tremendous amounts of magic, but she was _not_ getting splashed by the water. She would stay with the boat, but high enough so that the water barely hit her.

Twilight thought of what the next possible escape route could be. Then an idea popped into her head.

"Okay everypony, I have an idea, so try not to move much," Twilight announced loudly enough for the others to hear.

"Where do you think we're going to move?" several voices retorted. Twilight began powering up a teleportation spell, in the most dangerous situation one could ever be for a teleport. They were moving, moving unpredictably at that, the destination was unseen, and concentration was just an impossibility. Nevertheless, she knew that if the situation continued uncorrected, the boat would get dragged further and further away into the west, because nopony had any power to stop it. They could even crash!

Trixie felt Twilight powering up a teleport. She wasn't one to exercise great caution, but she knew that spell was going to be done in about the most dangerous manner possible. Therefore, she decided to help, since she _could_ see both the targets to teleport and the possible destination. Of course, it would be difficult, considering she was already maintaining two spells at the same time, but desperate times called for desperate measures, so she began powering up her own teleport.

Twilight felt that strange feeling interfering with her magic again. Considering her recent discovery, she hypothesized it was Trixie. She looked up, and indeed Trixie's horn was glowing, and with a triple glow at that, meaning she was performing three spells at the same time. Twilight knew that Trixie used two spells, tether and telekinesis, to hold herself up, but the third was used elsewhere. Her eyes widened as she realized what Trixie was doing.

"Trixie, stop! Don't do it! It's very-" She was too late, Trixie didn't hear her over the rushing waters and the massive concentration she was focusing on her spells. Both Trixie's and Twilight's teleport, intertwined, activated at the same time. The explosive concoction was rather unpredictable, and extremely powerful. The eight travelers teleported, but it also knocked them out for a long time.

…

Twilight awoke with a start. Recent events began flooding her mind. Immediately, she scanned the surroundings to know where she was. Apparently, she was still on the boat, and the others as well. Some began to slowly come to consciousness as well. The second thing Twilight noticed was that it was night, with the moon one-quarter of its way up. The third thing she noticed was that they were _still_ on a river, but this time it was calm and smooth.

The best course of action for Twilight was to wake the others. She shook Rainbow Dash first.

"Ugh… What? Huh?" Rainbow Dash flew into the air, then cringed and fell back into the boat. Remembering the recent events, she groaned. "Ugh… still hurts." The burn from the rope still held her in pain, and undoubtedly affected Fluttershy as well.

"Don't worry, it appears we're safe now," Twilight reassured her friend calmly. Compared to the situation that, at least in her mind, happened several minutes ago, this was too calm, serene even. That wouldn't last long, however, because the rest would need to be woken up, and quick. She decided that Spike is the next she needed to wake up, and that Fluttershy would be last.

Twilight shook her dragon assistant. "Ugh... Twilight, it's still night, I can still see the stars..." It took Spike a while to process the current situation. "Hey, whoa, I can see the stars! Why are we outside?" Suddenly awake, he looked around at the others. "Oh yeah, the boat..."

"Don't worry Spike, we're all safe for now. We'll get us out of here... somehow... right Dash?"

"Yeah, don't worry," Rainbow chuckled, "though I won't be able to move much, unfortunately." Rainbow Dash was suddenly flooded with some specific memories in her life that she didn't particularly like, similar to that time she was grounded when she broke her wing, which was way too boring. "Hey, Twilight, don't you have some egghead spell to fix me up?"

Twilight pondered for a bit about what to say. Her magic was very weak, and she wasn't a nurse, so she only briefly studied in the area of healing spells.

"Well, I could have, maybe, but not right now. I almost can't cast any spells right now, though I do know of a few that could help you heal faster." It seemed that all the ponies were exhausted in every which way possible: the pegasi from flying, the unicorns from casting, and the earth ponies from running around and gathering twigs, though they were the least tired. Spike, however, had nothing to do, so he wasn't tired in the least

"Okay, let's wake everypony else up. We need a plan, now." With that, she proceeded to wake Trixie and Rarity, Spike went over to the slumbering Applejack and Pinkie, while Rainbow Dash weakly prodded Fluttershy.

Moans and sighs escaped their mouths as everypony woke up. Some were having headaches.

"Twilight, what happened? All Ah remember were us in that boat and we were gettin' bucked by the river."

Twilight sighed in relief, "Yep, they're fine." Applejack's way of speaking was unique, and was usually a signature in how she felt. Her tone often reflected her honesty, and her true condition as well.

Fluttershy, on the other hoof, was surprisingly not freaking out. Instead, she was holding her side in slight pain, but at least not freaking out. Twilight decided that the others can manage, especially Rainbow Dash, but Fluttershy needed help the most.

"Fluttershy, do you need any herbs or healing plants? I can try to conjure one up, though it will take a lot of magical power. Fortunately, my talent is magic, so I'm sure I can do it." In truth, Twilight didn't quite know if she had the power necessary in her, nor how to create healing plants, but she has studied them, so if she can make parasprites, she should be able to make a healing plant. Besides, she would do anything to help her friends in need.

"Well, a yellow Carpus would be nice. It can numb pain, but I'm not sure you should stress yourself over it. I-I'm fine for now..."

"Hey, don't just totally ignore me!" Trixie protested. She didn't belong there, but her pride kept her from being silent. Nopony simply ignores The Great and Powerful Trixie like that.

"Trixie! My friend is hurt, and you just want attention?" Twilight retorted. "What were you doing anyways? Were you the one countering my spells?"

Trixie smiled shyly, "Well... yes... but I had a very good reason!"

"And what could that possibly be?"

"Uhm, revenge?"

"Again? Trixie, didn't we go over this?"

"Oh no no no, I meant it the other way! You see, I wanted to try out something nice..."

"You call that nice?!"

"Well, relatively, yes! And stop interrupting The Great and Powerful Trixie like that! You know how you ponies do pranks? Well, I decided to try one out too..." Trixie lost the confidence in her voice. She hated looking unconfident and unknowledgeable, and the only thing she hated more than that is admitting it.

"You know, I think you need some practice..." Twilight sighed. This wasn't the best of situations, and it wasn't getting any better. If she didn't know better, she would say this is one of those big troubles that lead them to some great villain, but it didn't look like anypony was out in the desert where they were anyways, and it was just them getting messed up in a bunch of accidents.

Twilight decided that arguing over what happened wouldn't get them anywhere, "Okay Trixie, let's just forget this for now, we have bigger problems." She looked over her injured and exhausted friends. "We're currently in the desert, and you know what that means during day. Since we're not very tired right now, thanks to the knockout that the spells created, we can get started walking now, though we'll have to take it slowly."

Twilight didn't much like the idea, but she preferred it over being baked by the sun her mentor brought. Sometimes, the sun was too powerful, but Celestia couldn't just refuse to raise the sun or lower its intensity, because that would probably cause several major catastrophes everywhere on the planet.

Seeing that nopony refused her idea, Twilight continued, "This region, if I recall correctly, has a jungle to the south nearby. We can head there to heal up and rest, then head back home."

Again, nopony protested, and so the group of eight started slowly walking towards their unexpected destination.

* * *

_[A/N] As a side note, I want to mention that the "yellow Carpus" is a totally made up name. Expect more made up stuff, as that is a necessity for EVERY story (otherwise, it'd just be a copy of another story, wouldn't it?). I find that making stuff up is slightly difficult, since this information needs to be maintained for continuity reasons, and deviations can cause contradictions that ruin the whole story.  
_

_Here's a side question: how would one go about self-insertion in a story? I mean, when one does that, there's sort of two versions of the same person: one in the story, one writing it. Basically, the issue is that the writer is omniscient (all-knowing), but the person inside the story is definitely not. That makes everything that much harder, since this gap in information has to be properly accounted for..._

_Anyways, I hope to see y'all soon (really, I do hope so)... Have a good time in the meantime!_


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